Niseko Cycle Week 2010 Delivers ! September 21 2010, 11:09pm via studio343.jp

The dust has just settled on Niseko Cycle Week for 2010 and my recovery will be a long one. Lots of people worked really hard to make this event the success and to everyone involved, nice one !

3 years running and it looks like Niseko Cycle Week is here to stay. For the last 3 years of NCW I’ve only really photographed the events, but this year I participated in most of them.

Last Saturday during the final weekend of NCW the TOUR DE HOKKAIDO juggernaut rolled into town ran a stage which started and finished in Hirafu.

I have only recently got into cycling, mainly mountain biking, but road cycling is completely different – lycra and grueling 100km + races are the norm where as I basically cruise along old back roads on my mountain bike looking for something cool to photograph.

Anyway the big boys set off at 9:30 and it was amazing to watch the pro’s and their teams in action – their race was a 186 km !

NCW held the Niseko Mountain Tour at 11:00 which was a 45 km loop around Mt Annupuri.
Hirafu > Hanazono > Goshiki > Annupuri > Higashiyama > Hirafu. I struggled.

If you would like to subject yourself to 552 unedited shots from the NCW event you can view them in this gallery.

All of the shots are sequential if you are looking for a particular event. Prints and digital copies are available – please contact me at glen@studio343.jp if you are interested. Hmm lycra……